The History of Chicken Pox Parties

Understanding Chickenpox

Chickenpox is a viral infection, resulting from an infection with the varicella-zoster virus. It is highly contagious and commonly affects children, but as long as the children are otherwise healthy, it is not serious. The symptoms are unpleasant but mild, and they typically resolve within about a week. Once a person has had chickenpox, the body builds up immunity to it, so most people only have it once in their lives. Chickenpox parties used to be popular, based on the premise that exposing a healthy child to the virus would “get it over with” and prevent infection in later life, when chickenpox can be much more serious. Brilliant idea, right? Not so fast.

The Problem with Pox Parties

While it is true that it is better to get chickenpox as a child than as an adult, exposure to the virus is not the best way to build immunity. Characterized by a rash that evolves into itchy, fluid-filled blisters, which then scab and fall off, chickenpox can sometimes have serious complications. Adults are more susceptible to these complications, which include bacterial infections, brain infection or inflammation, pneumonia, sepsis, dehydration, and bleeding problems. It would seem to make sense to expose children to this illness to keep them from having to go through it as adults, and for a while, pox parties were the only way to build lasting immunity. However, a chickenpox vaccine developed in 1995 eliminated the need for children to go through this illness, and it’s much better to have the vaccine than the virus. Why? If you have had the virus, it can stay in the body in dormant form. When it reactivates later in life, it causes shingles, which is an extremely painful condition. People who have had the vaccine, rather than the virus, have a much lower risk of contracting shingles.

Something Else to Consider

Before the development of the chickenpox vaccine, about 4 million people in the United States used to contract chickenpox each year. Out of those 4 million, somewhere between 8,000 to 18,000 ended up in the hospital, and 100 to 150 died. While that is a small percentage, it is too dire a consequence to risk having the virus unnecessarily. As of 2017, only about 8,775 in the entire United States had chickenpox, which is a dramatic drop. The vaccination is a safe and effective way to develop immunity to the virus without exposing your children to the severe and sometimes life-threatening risks that go along with a chicken pox infection.

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